Sunday, August 3, 2008

CLARK'S DAY

Saturday at Elk Grove started out with Clark's strategies seeing as how he was going to be in all 3 cat 5 races. After calming Clark down and telling him that the race would be too fast for a single man break, instead in the first race he does a three man break. Knowing how Clark likes to push a big gear and not spin he still ended up an impressive 4th. In the second cat 5 race it looked like Jorge was in great position for the sprint before two riders met in front of him going down with him going down on top of them. Luckily their bodies cushioned Jorge's fall. Clark ended up 24th after dropping down to his 11 too soon. On the third race, after Jorge had to recover from a crash (thanks goes to Sram in the pit) and switch numbers, again Clark felt like he had to pull the field with one lap left. With enough energy left Clark, who this time did not dump his cassette all at the same time, sprinted to the line taking 3rd. Jorge and Joe who were mid pack the whole way, ended up 13th and 16th. Lessons learned- When you are in the 11 and not spinning it makes for a good picture but not speed. And secondly, if you are in back to back races, instead of switching numbers, place one number on top of the other. Then all you have to do is tear off the top and you are ready to go again.

The Cat 4 race was way sketchy. Before the race with everybody lined up the field was asked to move to one side to make way for the pace car to get through. This squeezed the field to half the area and of course riders in the back attempted to take advantage of this by following the car to the front. It was nice that this was noticed by one of the officials who told those riders to go to the back, but they really didn't. This squeezed the field even tighter for the start. With the surges and resultant slowing down thereafter and the turns it was a tight pack all the way to the end. Brakes were locking up all over the place sending bicycle sideways. This was evident after one of the leaders got pinched on the last lap, which by itself had three seperate crashes. (If anybody can give me input, why was the motorcycle official attempting to make his way through the pack midway through the race?). All in all it was smart to stay way out in front or way in the back.